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Burning sky The aurora australis is seen by many Aboriginal groups as an omen of bushfires in the spirit world, according to a new study of traditional Indigenous oral culture.

The research, presented this week at the Australian Space Science Conference, found most traditional teachings associated the reddish hues of the aurora australis or southern lights, with blood, fire and death.

"That's very different from the more festive stories associated with the aurora borealis or northern lights, in the traditional cultures of Canada, Siberia and Northern Europe, says the paper's author Dr Duane Hamacher of the University of New South Wales.

"Comets and eclipses were seen as omens, meteors as spirits, and aurora were seen as fires," says Hamacher.

Accounts were collected in all Australian states and territories, with most being from Victoria and South Australia.

All were from regions south of the Tropic of Capricorn, and mostly in the southern parts of the country, where aurorae can best be seen.

"Even these fairly rare events are common in oral tradition," says Hamacher.

"This tells us that people paid very close attention to the sky."

Aurorae occur as charged particles from the solar wind are channelled into the upper atmosphere, near the poles, by the Earth's magnetic field, creating a colourful curtain like ring of light.

The colour depends on the particles being ionised. Molecular oxygen glows red at high altitudes and green lower down, while an oxygen-nitrogen mix produces a more whitish-yellow colour, and molecular nitrogen glows blue or red, depending on its charge.

"If you're in high latitudes, you see these intense colours dancing in the sky, which were often seen as spirits dancing, and so it didn't have the same negative connotations in the northern hemisphere," says Hamacher.

But at lower latitudes further away from the magnetic poles, observers can only see very high altitude aurorae, which appear lower on the horizon.

"These are dominated by oxygen, which tends to be more red, typically seen as having to do with fire or death, blood, evil spirits and omens of punishment," says Hamacher.

Aboriginal babel

Accounts from the Gunai people from southern Victoria, describe aurorae as a physical manifestation of the anger of the powerful sky deity Mungan Ngour.

"Mungan's fire was cast down upon the people for disobeying sacred laws and traditions," says Hamacher.

According to Hamacher, other traditional southern hemisphere cultures also view aurorae activity as fires in the heavens.

"The Maori people of New Zealand at Wanganui on the North Island, speak of coming to New Zealand, when one of their canoes went further south down to the land of ice," says Hamacher.

"The aurorae are these people trying to make fires in the spirit world and signalling that they're coming back."